Posted on Friday 8-20-10, but most of it was written a few lines at a time over the week then posted on Friday.
Today is Sunday, August 15, 2010.
Ronda and I have just finished 2 weeks (100 hours) of the best training we have ever been able to enjoy.
We had classes on security, medical safety, health (do not drink the water unless it is in a bottle), and how to deal with the cultural overload that will hit us after a few days in China.
It was a 2 week, 10 hours a day, marathon – and I do mean we were running to keep up.
The training was to prepare us for our 1 year of working in China in the China Teachers program through BYU where we will teach English at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
We have our class assignments:
Ronda – 3 classes of Freshmen - Oral English,
2 classes of Senior Writing,
1 class of Writing for Graduate Students.
Charles – 3 classes of Sophomores for Oral English,
2 classes of Juniors for Speech and Debate,
1 class of South Korean Juniors for Speech and Debate.
We are excited to meet our students.
We had many classes on culture, ethics, and Chinese history. We had 20 hours of Chinese language. That is not much but we hope we learned enough to ask for something to eat and directions back to our living quarters when we get lost in the city of Shanghai.
We look forward to visiting the many historical sites of China like the Great Wall, the canal between Beijing and Shanghai, the Silk Road near Xi an with the Terracotta warriors, Hong Kong, and maybe Siagon, Viet Nam (all it takes is money). We enjoy visiting sites around the world.
We hope we can help those who want to improve their use of the English Language to become better readers, speakers, and English Language users.
more later